Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter

More US troops have died in Trump’s insane war of aggression against Iran, so of course we’re seeing a bunch of phony bullshit from American warmongers about what a heroic sacrifice these soldiers made in order to justify further escalations.

“Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve,” tweeted Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in response to the news that two US troops were killed with one soldier missing after Iranian retaliatory strikes on a US base in Jordan.

But they weren’t “heroes”, and they did not make any “sacrifice”.

A hero is someone who risks danger taking noble action for the benefit of others. A sacrifice is when you give up your life for a higher cause.

This was neither of those things. Those soldiers were killed in response to US airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in a stupid, evil war of aggression waged by a Zionist president to please his billionaire Israeli megadonor. Those US attacks destroyed a desalination plant, cutting off an essential water supply for thousands of Iranian civilians.

They did not die defending the United States. They did not die protecting the American people. They did not die for freedom, for democracy, or for any of the other bogus reasons you’ll see imperial spinmeisters saying they died for. They died for Israel, for the military-industrial complex, and for US imperial agendas of global domination. And for nothing else.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The US is preparing to radically intensify the Ukrainian Conflict over the coming year.

Trump’s decision to sign the “G7 leaders’ joint statement on geopolitical issues” calling for more arms to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia signaled that he’ll now “escalate to de-escalate” (E2DE) through a “war of attrition” waged by Ukraine. The EU will back this campaign to the hilt and Trump 2.0 will seek to obtain control over Russia’s natural resources companies as its top goal via the coercive selling of shares under pain of continued NATO-backed Ukrainian strikes against associated infrastructure if Putin refuses.

The contours of his administration’s E2DE strategy are now starting to take shape. Nearly two weeks before he signed the abovementioned joint statement, the House passed a bill that would “provid[e] more than $1 billion in security and reconstruction aid. It would make another $8 billion available for Ukraine’s defense through loans.” On the sidelines of the G7 Summit, Trump then said that he’ll soon reimpose oil sanctions against Russia, which would disrupt Putin’s Sino-Indo balancing act.

Around the same time, “A group of US senators has introduced legislation that would amend existing law to allow Ukraine to use assets confiscated from the Central Bank of Russia and other Russian sovereign assets to purchase military equipment.”

All of this coincided with reports that the Senate also introduced language into the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) calling for continued intelligence support to Ukraine across all of next year to aid its quest to reconquer its lost land (and possibly more).

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

Armenia "continues to face significant economic pressure from Russia," and "when the pressure on our partners intensifies, the European Union becomes more active," the President of the European Commission stated, speaking in Yerevan alongside Prime Minister Pashinyan. This active participation was expressed in a promise to provide $92 million to "strengthen and diversify" Armenia's trade.

❖ According to von der Leyen, the European Commission is proposing "autonomous trade measures" that would supposedly liberalize almost 80% of Armenia's exports to the EU, making them duty-free. These measures would apply to almost all fresh fruits, vegetables, and plants that Armenia until now has exported to Russia, as well as over 90% of its beverage and spirit exports, she added. After which, Armenia will become fabulously rich, since the EU has 450 million consumers.

The last time something like this was said was in Ukraine in 2013-2014, when then-opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk explained on television to Ukrainians that a free trade zone with the EU was more profitable than the Customs Union because the EU has a larger market. Yatsenyuk didn't explain that this market is extremely competitive and subsidized, and that few people want Ukrainian products there. Now, Armenia will have to learn from experience that theoretical market access doesn't equal prosperity.

❖ If we look at the numbers, von der Leyen is simply lying. A full-fledged replacement is impossible in the short term and highly doubtful over time. The EU can only buy Pashinyan a little time for politics; $92 million won't be enough for more.

In 2025, Armenia exported approximately $3 billion worth of goods to Russia, accounting for 35.3% of its total exports. By comparison, the EU's share of Armenian exports is 7.9%, down from approximately 28% 10 years ago. In other words, in recent years, Armenia's export model has not diversified, but has become even more tied to Russia and re-export schemes.

Strategic Culture Foundation (Editorial)
Strategic Culture Foundation

German soldiers accompanied by Panzer III tanks march
eastward through a Russian meadow in the summer of 1941.
German spearheads covered vast swaths of Russian territory
during the opening weeks of Operation Barbarossa.

Western imperialism and its NATO weapons, proxies, and media are at it again.

This week marked 85 years since Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the greatest crime of aggression in human history. This week, too, German panzers with their distinctive Iron Cross insignia were rolling towards Russia’s border, along with other NATO partners in a military exercise cynically misnamed Operation Freedom Shield.

It is truly shocking how history on such a criminal scale is being repeated, brazenly and seemingly with public insouciance.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched the biggest military invasion ever recorded in history. Operation Barbarossa deployed three million German troops along with units from allied countries. The Blitzkrieg opened the largest theater of World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. At least 27 million citizens of the Soviet Union were killed, most of them civilians. Grainy footage from the time shows line after line of people being shot and dumped in mass graves. In one notorious atrocity, in September 1941, over 33,000 civilians were executed in just two days at a ravine in Babi Yar, near Kyiv.

Four years later, the Soviet Red Army fought the Nazi Wehrmacht all the way back to final defeat in Berlin.

Every Russian family was traumatized by the horror and inhumane suffering. The memory of the calamity remains seared in the nation’s consciousness. The Nazi invasion was carried out as a war of annihilation in which there was no mercy for men, women, and children. The Final Solution involved the systematic extermination of Slavs, Jews, Communists, and Roma and others considered Untermenschen (Subhuman) by Nazi racial ideology. The German Wehrmacht and Einsatzgruppen death squads were assisted by fascist auxiliaries in Lithuania, the other Baltic states, and Ukraine.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

All that Tusk has to do is threaten to stop having Poland serve as the transit state for 90% of Ukraine’s military-technical imports from NATO, which would either be sufficient for Ukraine to comply before they’re cut off or it would likely do so shortly thereafter, but he refuses to do so, lacking the political will.

The denazification of Ukraine is one of Russia’s explicitly stated goals in the special operation, yet it’s remained elusive ever since the UK and Poland sabotaged spring 2022’s peace deal due to their joint desire to inflict a strategic defeat on their historical (millennium-long in Poland’s case) Russian rival.

Lavrov vaguely elaborated on Russia’s understanding of this objective in spring 2025 by suggesting that his country now envisages denazification to mean restoring the rights of Ukraine’s Russian minority. This can only be achieved through domestic legal mechanisms, which is why spring 2022’s draft peace deal contained relevant clauses to this effect.

Russia never planned to occupy all of Ukraine, impose full denazification, and then uphold it through an indefinite law enforcement operation across the country. Military force is seen by Russia only as a means to coerce Ukraine into doing what’s demanded of it in this regard. Russia’s aforementioned difficulty in denazifying Ukraine is nowadays relevant for Poland.

Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter

Some guy broke into my house and set up residence in the study room. He says his great-grandparents used to live in this house and now he won’t leave.

My family and I tried to kick him out but he got very violent. He brings in his friends and they help beat us up if we ever try to make him leave.

They keep saying I hate the guy because of his religion. I don’t even care about his religion, I just don’t like sharing my house with some random outsider who broke in here out of nowhere and took my stuff.

“The poor guy just wants one room to call his own,” his friends say in his defense. “You and your family have all the surrounding rooms in the house, and yet you have a problem with the guy having sovereignty over ONE room? That’s kind of bigoted and evil.”

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

[Image: Firefighters extinguish a fire at the "Panorama of the Defence of Sevastopol" museum, which, according to local authorities, was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Sevastopol.]

Crimea is ceasing to be a strategic advantage for Russia and is gradually becoming a strategic burden, argues Ilya Timchenko, an analyst at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA, not welcome in Russia). His entire article is a clear snapshot of the level of euphoria reigning in the minds of Western analysts in response to the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strikes on Crimea and the logistics of the Black Sea region.

In other words, in the minds of Ukrainian and Western analysts, Crimea is not only practically already under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but is also about to become a Ukrainian foothold.

This is certainly a bold view. After all, by the same logic, taking into account the far more extensive attacks on logistics in Ukraine, Russia already controls at least the entire Left Bank of the Dnieper. It's ironic that, for these enemy analysts, the front and Crimea exist separately.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

It surrendered its sovereignty to the US at a tremendous economic cost and with no benefit to itself.

Russian Ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov gave an interview to TASS in mid-April where he detailed the new threats that Finland poses to Russia. In his assessment, “Today, the most serious challenge to our security is probably NATO’s extensive electronic and aerial reconnaissance operations from Finnish territory. NATO reconnaissance aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles have become regular flights along the border with Russia.” It’s also rapidly militarizing at an “accelerated pace”.

“New corvettes are being built at shipyards, equipped with the most advanced NATO weapons, including cruise missiles and torpedoes. A large-scale rearmament program for the ground forces has been launched, including the purchase of extended-range and ballistic missiles.” Moreover, “This year, the first of 64 F-35A multirole fighters purchased from the US will begin arriving. Incidentally, these fighters are capable of carrying nuclear weapons if desired.” Finland is also considering hosting nukes too.

On a related note, Kuznetsov said that “We must also remember the Defense Cooperation Agreement between Finland and the United States, signed in late 2023, which provides for the stationing of American troops and weapons at 15 Finnish military bases and facilities.” In addition, “Finland plans to deploy a NATO communications and information system unit in Riihimäki” next year, while later this year, “a multinational task force, the Forward Land Forces (FLF), will be stationed in Rovaniemi”.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The Senior Ukrainian Sergeant wasn’t reprimanded by the armed forces or the government for this.

Chief Sergeant of the Unmanned Systems Battalion of the 5th Separate Assault Kyiv Brigade, Yury Syrotyuk, unprecedentedly threatened Poland during an extended interview “On Poland and Ukraine, explosions in Moscow, and the enemy’s flight from Crimea” in late June. The relevant part is from 36:00-36:50, where he accused Poland of waging an historical war that risks becoming a physical one, in which case Ukraine will fly drones into its cities and kill its people. He thus advised Poland not to cross that line.

Syrotyuk’s scandalous interview came several days after he shared a clip of himself on Facebook from another program where he described himself as the grandson and nephew of UPA veterans “who defended their homes from all the occupiers in Volhynia” in a reference to genociding local Poles there. He accused Poland in his video of seeking regional hegemony and plotting to partner with Russia to partition Ukraine. The sentiment expressed in his two videos isn’t uncommon among Ukrainians nowadays.

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

The "Prince of Darkness" organized the 2007 Blackwater
shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq. He was never convicted
for this. As always, he presents himself as a devout Christian.
This great escape artist now resurfaces as an Iran war expert...

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. – Matthew 24:24

Trump was "badly advised" on the Iran operation, and the mission itself was "poorly planned," Blackwater founder Erik Prince said.

Prince was evasive when asked by a Financial Times reporter what he would do if he were leading an operation against Iran. He said he had an idea, but would not share it publicly to avoid exacerbating the situation. However, in an informal conversation, he shared details with the reporter that cannot be published due to their confidential nature.

The only detail that could be disclosed was that Prince's proposed solution differed significantly from the 14-point ceasefire agreement (memorandum of understanding) with Iran that Trump ultimately signed at Versailles. Therefore, the details of the alternative solutions remain unknown.

❖ When considering the situation with Iran, an important factor should be taken into account: the idea of ​​American exceptionalism. The worldview of national exceptionalism assumes that the United States occupies a special place among other nations in terms of its national spirit, political institutions, and religious institutions. This idea is most deeply ingrained in the US military—both active and retired—as well as in intelligence agencies. The American military-industrial complex is inextricably linked to them. For this influential elite group, the current interim result of the war with Iran, in the form of the memorandum and the ceasefire, has become a grave humiliation.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Russia can either decisively “escalate to de-escalate” in its own right to swiftly end the conflict on as many of its terms as possible, carry on as usual amidst this new “war of attrition” at tremendous risk to itself, or freeze the conflict.

Lavrov sheepishly said during a roundtable event last week that “I do not even want to suspect that Alaska, like the actions of the Europeans, was designed to buy time to rearm the Kyiv regime. I don’t even want to think about it. But in reality, things turned out the way they did.” This came three and a half years after former German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted in December 2022 that the Minsk Accords were just a ruse to buy time for Kyiv to rearm.

Putin famously responded a month later that “We endured for a long time, tried to reach an agreement for a long time. But, as it turns out now, we were simply led by the nose, deceived.

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

The Russian SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service): The West aims to change the constitutional order in Belarus

NGOs from Western countries, including “democratization” structures, agencies, and foundations from the US, Britain, Germany, Poland, and other European states, are accumulating forces and resources to once again attempt to destabilize the situation, and bring about a change in the constitutional order in Belarus, according to the SVR press service.

It is specified that the West...

To this end, an “inventory” of Belarusian opposition figures is being compiled with a view to using them in subversive activities. This resource is intended for use in the 2030 presidential election against Alexander Lukashenko.

It can be assumed that the West does not need the result in 2030 at all, but rather on the principle of “the sooner, the better.” 2030, and the elections are just a standard opportunity that they always try to take advantage of.

Jarle Aarstad
Jarle Aarstad’s Substack

Sharp Increase in COVID-19 Deaths Among Young People in Norway AFTER Vaccination

According to a recently published study by, 74 young people in Norway under the age of 30 developed myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – as a direct consequence of COVID-19 vaccination.

Myocarditis is one of the deadliest conditions that can strike young people, but the grim statistics only become obvious after a few years.

In addition, the Norwegian Medicines Agency (Legemiddelverket – Directorate for Medical Products) has classified 1,453 of 16,085 reported adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination in young people under 30 as serious.

Was the COVID-19 vaccination of young people worth the price? | Based on these grim figures, it is legitimate to ask: was COVID-19 vaccination of young people worth the price? The answer is yes only if the benefits outweigh the significant drawbacks. That is, if the COVID-19 vaccine prevented many COVID-19 deaths in the young Norwegian population. But did it do so?

Finian Cunningham
strategic-culture.su

It is self-serving career politicians like Burnham who are fueling the danger of war with Russia.

Britain is now lining up its seventh prime minister in a period of just 10 years. The heir apparent to 10 Downing Street is Andy Burnham, who is set to take over the unenviable task of running Britain following Keir Starmer’s resignation this week.

Starmer finally quit as the Labour Party leader after weeks of mounting pressure to step down. He had only been in office for two years, but his dwindling poll ratings made his tenure unsustainable.

Burnham is due to take over within the next few weeks. The 56-year-old former mayor of Greater Manchester is reckoned to be a fresh face who will revive Labour’s popularity going into the next general election.

But given the fickle nature of British politics, there is no guarantee that Burnham will deliver. After all, Starmer was elected with a landslide in July 2024, only to become a reviled and ridiculed non-entity. There were many nails in his political coffin. Unpopular tax hikes and his sleazy association with former ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, who was forced to resign over the Epstein scandal, were among the controversies that undermined Starmer’s authority.

Moon of Alabama
Moon of Alabama (Blog)

The talks between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, as agreed upon in their Memorandum of Understanding, are veering off course.

There are two major forces that are threatening to derail the agreement.

One is, very predictably, Israel, which does its best to sabotage the talks. The MoU emphasizes the end of fighting in Lebanon and the retreat of Israeli forces from Lebanese ground.

While Israel, after pressure from the U.S., had stopped fighting over the weekend, its officials have stated that there will be no retreat of their forces. Today, Israeli troops attacked Lebanese civilians who were clearing a road in Nabatieh. It then attacked the civil defense forces, which tried to help those wounded during the first strike.

The U.S., Iran, and the Qatari and Pakistani mediators had agreed over the weekend to install an observer group to prevent such incidents. Iran will demand that the U.S. intervene in the case. It will otherwise take its own measures, which may again block the Strait of Hormuz.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

It was warned last fall that “The US Plans To Wage An Intensified Proxy War Of Attrition Against Russia”, and now that Trump just signaled that he plans to “escalate to de-escalate” with Russia per the arms- and sanctions-related terms of the G7 joint statement that he signed, this might now begin to happen. As a reminder, the Wall Street Journal reported that this three-phase strategy involves helping Ukraine surpass Russia’s drone capabilities, more secondary sanctions, and provoking unrest inside of Russia.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes have targeted energy infrastructure in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and even Tyumen (the latter possibly by drones launched from Kazakhstan without Astana’s knowledge). Ukraine then hit an electronics plant in Voronezh and a satellite communications center in Moscow Region on Monday. Two days prior on Saturday, the Head of Crimea suspended fuel sales for everyone but the government, which highlighted the consequences of Ukraine’s “drone blockade” of Crimea.

The “war of attrition” that Ukraine is now waging against Russia through its strategic strikes on energy and other infrastructure is timed for September’s next Duma elections. United Russia might not maintain the 49.82% of the popular vote from the last elections in 2021, which could force them into a coalition with the communist or nationalist opposition, depending on how high the protest vote is. Putin’s foreign foes believe that this would weaken Russia, instead of rejuvenating it, and want to help make this happen.

The aforesaid strikes are thus being paired with Zelensky’s ultimatum to Lukashenko to withdraw air defenses and drone relay stations from the border, or Ukraine will do it for him.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Russia can’t allow US-backed Ukraine to attack Belarus with impunity otherwise it risks losing its closest ally, whether to destruction or Lukashenko’s “defection” to the West. Either scenario would shift the strategic balance of power in the Ukrainian Conflict to Russia’s supreme disadvantage.

Zelensky gave Lukashenko one week to remove air defenses and drone relay transmitters along their joint border otherwise Ukraine will do it for him.

This comes amidst their growing tensions that have been boiling since spring after Zelensky implied that Ukraine could capture Lukashenko like the US captured Maduro on the pretext of preempting a supposedly imminent Belarusian invasion of Ukraine. This closely resembles their summer 2024 crisis which readers learn more about here, here, and here.

The crucial difference between then and now, however, is that the West and Ukraine no longer have any respect for Russia’s “red lines” after Putin’s noble efforts to avert a dangerous escalation cycle that could inadvertently lead to World War III were misperceived by them as “weakness”.

Stephen Karganovic
Strategic Culture Foundation

Courts almost everywhere are disinclined to entertain amply documented and cogently argued submissions. That is clear proof, if any is needed, that the judicial establishment is as corrupt and beholden to private moneyed interests as is the ruling political class that it serves.

Dr. Reiner Fuellmich is rotting in a German dungeon, in the European garden where human rights and freedom to speak truth to power without fear of punishment are said to be paramount values.

Technically, the subject of these lines, German-American lawyer Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, if we were to go by the rulings of German courts, is a convicted “criminal” who is serving a three-year and nine month prison term, not a hero. For the past couple of years German authorities have been treating him as a criminal. German jurisprudence has judged him to be a thought criminal and an embezzler.

Dr. Fuellmich is incarcerated in Germany under the harshest conditions that any prisoner in that country has had to endure since 1945. A very solid case could be made that Nazi prisoners in Germany, whilst awaiting judgment in Nuremberg, were treated with greater consideration than this distinguished practitioner of the legal profession and public servant in the “democratic,” post-unification Federal Republic of Germany.

We have already written extensively about how Dr. Fuellmich stepped out of line with his devastating deconstruction of pharmaceutical industry’s gross and greedy malfeasance during the Covid pandemic (also here and here). That exposé, not the fabricated charge of embezzlement, is the actual cause of his present troubles. Dr. Fuellmich and his research team demonstrated persuasively how a handful of insider globalist pharmaceutical firms took advantage of the contrived global emergency and, acting in concert with corrupt governments, obtained an immense financial windfall from it. Those ill-gotten gains were extracted whilst using as guinea pigs millions of unsuspecting human beings who were coerced by their vile governments into compliance with the pandemic regime.

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

The Kyiv Führer claimed that equipment supposedly deployed on towers in Belarus along the border with Ukraine is capable of directing Russian strikes. "I'm giving you a week to remove it, or we will do it," Zelenskyy added. He also named Belarus as one of the main fuel suppliers for the Russian army and said that Lukashenko "can stop this."

❖ These remarks are more than notable. Especially considering that earlier, after the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck a bus carrying Belarusian children in the Bryansk region, Minsk declared its right to "take action against Ukraine to protect the lives of its citizens." In other words, we are witnessing the emergence of a new narrative: Minsk claims the right to act against Ukraine, while Kyiv claims a "right" to act against targets within Belarus. This means that, from a political perspective, aggression by the Kyiv regime against Belarus is possible.

Even if we assume that "towers" in Belarus actually exist, their destruction is unlikely to have any significant operational effect for Ukraine, because Russia's UAV infrastructure is not tied to a few towers along the border. A more logical threat would be strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Belarusian oil refineries, since Kyiv's overall policy is to create a fuel shortage in Russia.

Sergey Lavrov
Foreign Minister of Russia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Federation (MFA)

This article by Sergey Lavrov was initially planned to be published in the Brussels-based “Politico-Europe”, but via a last minute decision of the outlet's editorial team the publication was canceled. (Unofficial trans.)

Some Reflections on Resolving the Ukrainian Crisis, Europe and Global Security | At a meeting in London on 7 June 2026, the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany, as well as Vladimir Zelensky, laid out five preconditions for Russia to secure a "just and lasting peace" in Ukraine. The united Europe now presents this list of demands as the basis for dialogue with Moscow

Background | More than two decades of negotiation with Europe, as part of the collective West, leads to only one conclusion: engaging Russia in dialogue has served as a diplomatic smokescreen for the geopolitical expansion of Western institutions, above all NATO and the European Union, eastwards, right up to Russia's borders.

Europe's complicity in fuelling the Ukrainian crisis is undeniable. Together with the United States, European countries orchestrated the Orange Revolution in Kiev in 2004. To create an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine, they spent years buying off politicians and entire parties, rewriting history and educational curricula, cultivating and nurturing Ukrainian nationalism, and went to great lengths to pull away Ukraine away from Russia.

In 2013, the European Union rejected outright our proposal for a compromise on the association agreement – a deal Brussels had long been pressing Viktor Yanukovich to sign.

It is worth recalling: Ukraine was offered unilateral market opening, without reciprocal commitments – terms that would have proved incompatible with Kiev's continued membership in the CIS free-trade zone. When Viktor Yanukovich requested a deferral, the Europeans incited street riots which swiftly escalated into a coup d'état in Kiev in February 2014.